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Our Approach to Licensing
What we do
Metrostar is a brand licensing agency. Put simply, we take intellectual property, whether that is a book, television series, character or organisation and look at it in the same way consumer goods or service companies look at their products - as a brand. We're particularly interested in the brand's potential to stretch into new product areas. These can take many guises from books and DVDs to magazines, food, clothing, games, mobile applications, giftware, exhibitions and promotions. If a brand has that potential, we help its owner, (the licensor), to find the right partner organisations (or licensees) to realise it.
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The aim of the exercise
At Metrostar we think of licensing as 'brand nutrition'; developing new products which 'feed back' into the original. Done well, it creates and fitter, happier and healthier brand. Done poorly it creates a rather tired, fat and unappealing one. After all, you are what you eat! So we resist talk of 'cashing in' and 'milking'. We help to create new products which enliven and enhance brands - and through that, we generate new revenues.
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The process
We often create a brand plan which encapsulates a brands particular attributes and values, and describes its consumer. Then we generate a licensing strategy which details our thoughts about product areas, territories and timescales. We help our clients to produce style guides, which show licensees and retailers the exciting potential of their brands, and gives them the guidance they need to develop new product ideas, packaging and promotional material.
The plans we create and the partners we work with are carefully crafted and selected. We talk about clients' needs and each licensing partner needs to 'get' a brand before we recommend them - and we always favour product quality. The right licence in our view is the one which builds the brand, not the one which offers the short-term commercial return.
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The secret of our success
As well as having some wonderful brands in our portfolio, we are extremely proactive, very creative and maddeningly persistent. We believe passionately in our brands' potential and we just go on (. . . and on and on) at licensees relentlessly (but nicely!) until they understand it too.
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The fruits of our labours
Metrostar has managed and brokered deals for clients in a broad range of categories including books, apparel, accessories, collectibles, dvds, board games, video games, mobile games, iphone apps, online gaming, stationery, magazines, partworks, greetings cards, toys, posters, ceramics, novelty gifts, calendars and events.
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